Flying High
by katiesgotagun
Summary: Charlotte "Charlie" Monahan is a simple irish woman who has an astonishing ability to get herself out of ridiculous situations. Will she be able to save herself from S.H.I.E.L.D.? Bruce X OC . Rated M for language, adult themes (drugs) and graphic nature.
1. Chapter 1

Today started like any other day for Charlotte: she woke up, brushed her teeth, got dressed, smoked some weed, and vegged out at the shelter. Now, Charlotte had never wanted any trouble; she just wanted to let loose a little bit when she was a teenager and her illegal habits carried from her adolescence into her adulthood. Working at a shelter definitely had its perks but Charlotte had always had problems with dealing with the world so she tended to mellow society out with her use of marijuana.

Wearing a pair of jeans and a black shirt, Charlotte threw on her pink overcoat and left for work, walking from her small apartment in Galway to the shelter two blocks down. With the world softened from her mind, she prepared herself for a boring day in her boring life- completely content with staying exactly where she was in life.

"Mornin', Shell," Charlotte called into the coffee shop where her best friend Shelley worked. She walked up to the counter and picked up the already waiting order- a caramel flavored cup of coffee (three sugars) and a raspberry jam topped scone.

"Charlie!" Shelley greeted as she walked out from the back room, her hands filled with a box of napkins. Placing the four euro on the counter and reaching to help her friend load the napkins into the café table napkin holders. "You look a little out of it. Did ya smoke this morning?"

Charlie flinched as her friend shot her a look. While Charlie had kept up her favorite activities from school, her friend had not. Shelley had taken more responsibility in her life, cleaned up her act and finished university at the top of her class, constantly reminding Charlie that she could do better than the mediocre degree she accomplished while stoned for nearly four years straight.

"I might have," Charlie cleared her throat uncomfortably as she shoved the brown paper napkins into the small baskets.

"Charlie," Shelley started, placing her hands on her hips in a way that reminded Charlie of her mother.

"I know, I know," Charlie rolled her eyes. "I have to grow up sometime."

"If you know, then why don't you actually grow up?" Shelley asked with a cocked brow.

"Cause I don't want to?" Charlie retorted with a similarly cocked eyebrow. Shelley sighed, placing the box of napkins roughly on the table as she shot her friend a look. "Alright, alright," With a roll of her eyes, Charlie grabbed her order and backed towards the door. "Spare me the lecture. I'll see ya later."

Seeing that her friend was about to object to Charlie's exit, she ducked out of the door and walked quickly down the street towards the animal shelter. Soon after she had left the shop, the coffee and scone had disappeared into a trash can. The animal shelter soon came into view and jarred Charlie from her stupor as she opened the door to the small shop.

The animal shelter was surprisingly clean today, meaning that the owner was meant to come in to make sure that his daughter was doing a good job of running the shop without him.

"The big bad boss man is coming in today?" Asked Charlie as she placed her jacket behind the counter.

"Yeah," Kathy, the daughter of the owner, moaned as she swept up the last of the dog hair into a small dustpan. Can you get started on that coton de tulear? The owner is coming in later today to pick him up."

Soon, the fluffy white dog was being rinsed down in the large bath in the back room. The small and playful yips the dog exuded showed that he loved the wash, unlike many of the other animals that severely needed it. Charlie wrapped the dog in a fluffy towel, rubbing him gently to dry him off before she hooked him up to a leash on one of their grooming tables.

Soon after Charlie had finished, the dog was washed, groomed, and topped off with a blue bow tie. Not a moment too soon, though, because the owner showed up yapping away on her cell phone before snatching the adorable dog away. Soon enough, the clock struck one, meaning that Charlie had her lunch break. Excusing herself from the shop, Charlie walked back home to grab some canned soup and smoke some more.

* * *

Halfway through her meal, there was a knock on the door. Seeing as Charlie had smoked before her soup was done heating up, she knew that she had nothing to worry about her illegal items laying around her apartment. Taking one last spoonful of her chicken noodle soup, Charlie hushed her three puppies as she walked up to the front door. Standing at the door, though, was a man dressed in a fine suit with a professional attitude. His hair was receding slightly, a dark brown color. His ear held one of those spy-movie communicators, and his eyes were covered by black sunglasses.

"Can I help ya?" She asked awkwardly, trying to hold her puppies back with her foot.

"May I come in?" The man asked, pushing past the girl before she even had a chance to respond. Seeing as she was going to be overpowered no matter what she said, Charlie shut the door and walked around her dogs to the kitchen, grabbing herself a cup of water to ease her anxiety. "My name is Phil, Phil Coulson."

"Would you like something to drink, or would you just take that, too?" Charlie asked with a careful amount of contempt in her voice.

"A water would be nice." Rolling her eyes, she grabbed another cup and filled it with water before placing it on the counter in front of him.

"Why, exactly, are you here?" Charlie asked as she sat down on her couch, her dogs jumping up to lay on and around her. She had noticed his American accent when he first came in, and she was at a loss for any reason why any Americans would need to be in touch with her.

"I'm here on behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D." He responded after he took a sip of the water, placing the cup gently down on the coffee table before following Charlie's example and sitting down.

"And that would be?" Charlie asked, rubbing her black lab on the head affectionately. She ignored looking into the man's sunglasses, seeing as she couldn't actually meet his eyes.

"Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division." He began, crossing his legs and lacing his fingers together in a professional way. "Miss Monahan, I'm going to need you to come with me."

"I'm sorry," She began, clearly confused. "What?"

"You have been selected as a candidate for an exclusive government program." He continued.

"Oh, you're joking!" Charlie concluded. "If this is because I didn't go out with that douche Mike, well you can tell him to shove it up his-"

"Miss Monahan, this is no joke." The agent dead panned, taking off his glasses and making eye contact with her for the first time. "You're going to have to come with me."

"If this is because of the-" She began, standing up and clearly terrified. Her dogs, sensing her unease, began to growl at the intruder.

"This is not because of the last three speeding tickets you have gotten in the last month, nor is it about your excessive smoking of an illegal substance." He sighed, standing up to match her height and make himself seem more intimidating. It definitely worked. "This is about your abilities."

"Abilities?" She asked, clearly confused. "What in Sam hell are ya talkin' about, lad? The only abilities that I have are cleaning dogs and making canned soup."

"If only that were true, Charlotte." Charlie winced at the use of her full name. "S.H.I.E.L.D. has been aware of your abilities since you first discovered them, Miss Monahan."

"I don't know what you're talking about, lad," Charlie cried, upset and clearly terrified. "Get the fuck out of ma house."

"That's a negative." He sighed, walking towards her slowly and cautiously, like he was approaching a wild animal. "You're going to need to come with me, Charlotte."

"Stay away from me," She cried, backing away from him with each step he took, eventually backing up into a wall. "Stay AWAY!" She shouted, causing her dogs to go crazy. Suddenly, there were armed men marching into her apartment, kicking down the door and busting in through the windows. They picked up each of the dogs and muzzled them, stopping the barking and making Charlie start crying and screaming. One of the larger men walked over to Charlie, making eye contact with the agent before scooping her up and throwing her over his shoulder.

"PUT ME DOWN," She cried, hitting his back repeatedly and squirming. "LET ME GO!"

"If only you had been cooperative, Miss Monahan." Coulson sighed, placing his black sunglasses back on. Charlie kept screaming and crying until one man jammed the back of his gun into the back of her head, efficiently rendering the girl unconscious. "Let's head back."


	2. Chapter 2

When Charlie came to, she was laying down in the back of a jet. She blinked her eyes carefully, trying to pacify the raging headache she felt. There was two men in the back with her, and two up front, flying the jet.  
"For fuck's sake." She groaned as she sat up, rubbing he back of her head where the man had hit her with a gun.  
"Ah," Phil said, turning from his blond companion to greet the pissed off girl. "Good morning, Miss Monahan."  
"Do you normally kidnap women before the first date?" She asked, standing from the uncomfortable makeshift bed.  
"Normally, you would have had more of a say in the matter. Unfortunately, I was not there on normal orders. I was under strict orders to bring you back with me." Charlie rolled her eyes before cracking her back.  
"What a charmer. You must make all the girls weep with joy," Charlie retorted with a grimace on her face. "Where the fuck are we goin'?"  
"Home base." Phil responded. He motioned to the man standing next to him before introducing him. "This is Steve Rogers, or as you may know him, Captain America."  
"T'aint ringin' any bells." Charlie deadpanned, extending her hand for a shake anyway. "Name's Charlie."  
"Nice to meet you." He responded with a nod and a slight smile. The flight soon came to an end, with Charlie fuming about being taken against her will to a place she didn't want to be. When the jet landed, Agent Coulson and Steve walked off of the jet. Charlie took her time grabbing the bag that Coulson had arranged of her things.  
"Agent Romanov." Coulson addressed with a professional nod of his head. "This is Captain Rogers."  
"Ma'am." Steve greeted.  
"Hi." She said curtly, turning back to face the agent. "They need you on the bridge." As she spoke, Charlie meandered down the ramp and raised her hand to block the sun from burning her retinas. Blinking her gray eyes owlishly, Charlie dropped her hand and walked towards Steve and the woman. She stuck to Steve's side out of familiarity, having not recognized one face on the deck aside from his.  
"It was quite the buzz around here." The woman started walking away from the two, Steve following her out of curiosity and Charlie following because Steve was. "I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"  
"Trading cards?" Steve asked skeptically.  
"They're vintage. He's very proud." The woman stopped as they reached another jet. A man in a gray was fidgeting nervously as he surveyed the ship, his hands wringing incessantly until Steve called out to him.  
"Doctor Banner," He called, causing the man to turn and walk towards the three people.  
"Oh, yeah, hi." Doctor Banner greeted, shaking the man's hand. "They told me you'd be coming."  
"Word is you can find the cube."  
"Is that the only word on me?"  
"The only word I care about." Banner looked around nervously again, until he spotted the unfamiliar woman standing relatively closely to Steve and, like him, fidgeting nervously.  
"And you are?" He asked, extending a hand to her.  
"Charlie." She responded almost nervously as she shook his hand firmly.  
"You're the one that can-" Charlie cut him off with a nervous laugh as she folded her arms rightly across her chest, her shoulders hunching. Taking her body language as a warning Bruce stopped talking.  
"Yep." She said. "That's me." He nodded before turning back to face Steve.  
"Must be strange for you, all of this." Bruce motioned around the deck at the people milling about.  
"Well," Steve started. "This is actually kind of familiar."  
"Gentleman, you might want to step inside in a minute." Agent Romanov said as she stepped forward. "It's gonna get a little hard to breathe."  
"Is this a submarine?"  
"Really?" Bruce chuckled dryly. "They want me in a submerged pressurized metal container?"  
Charlie followed the men, peering far over the edge to see propellers emerging from the water. Charlie shot a look at Bruce, who returned it with a sardonic smirk.  
"Oh no," he chuckled. "This is much worse."  
Charlie followed behind the group, her footsteps keeping up only so that she didn't get lost in this huge contraption. She stared around the giant room that she assumed was the command room, her arms stuffed in the pockets of her jeans.  
"Gentlemen," A man with an eyepatch addressed from the center of the room. "And lady." The man eyed Charlie curiously. "I didn't think you'd come."  
"I didn't have much of a choice, now did I?" Charlie asked rhetorically cocking her hip and glaring at the man that she assumed was in charge. The man began to walk past Steve, who handed the man ten dollars.  
"Doctor, thank you for coming." Fury extended a hand towards the good doctor, who returned the handshake.  
"Thank you for asking nicely. So, um, how long am I staying?" Charlie tuned out their conversation, instead opting to sit down in one of the spinning chairs and spinning slowly, her eyes locked on the ceiling. She was snapped out of her zoning when her name was called, her head lolling to the side to see the beautiful agent Romanov standing next to the Doctor by the doorway.  
"You'll be coming with us." Romanov said curtly, motioning to the door with her hand. Charlie sighed as she stood from her sitting her position, cracking her back before walking towards the two people.

"So why have they put you with me?" Bruce asked as he got to work in the lab, his eyes never quite meeting hers. "Your documents didn't state any background in science, or in medical."  
"Beats me, Doc." She sighed, sitting down in me of the lab chairs and leaning her elbows on her knees. "Maybe cause we're similar."  
"How so?" He asked, keeping an eye on her in her peripheral vision.  
"I can't control it." Charlie sighed, grabbing one of the lighters from her pocket and lighting it habitually. "I haven't even thought about using it in years."  
"That's where we differ." Bruce smirked. "I live with my problem constantly there, whereas you can ignore it."  
"Why did you agree to come?" Charlie asked as she looked up at him with her tired eyes, shrugging off her coat that had been stuffed in the bag.  
"I didn't really have much of a choice." He sighed, rolling his sleeves up to his elbows.  
"Did they knock you out, too?" Charlie asked as she leaned backwards in the chair, kicking off of one of the desks so that the chair would spin. Bruce didn't answer at first- he took his glasses off to clean them before grabbing the back of her chair and forcing her to stop spinning.  
"They took you against your will?" He asked rhetorically. Charlie raised her gray eyes from the ground to meet his soft brown eyes. She nodded her head once before looking back towards the ground. "That's low, even for S.H.I.E.L.D."  
"I didn't even know that anyone knew. I mean, I never even told my parents and I've kept it to myself since I found out about it."  
"They have their ways. It's not like they see people flying every day."  
"That's the thing, Doctor Banner, I've never actually flown. Never took the chance." Charlie bit her lip as she fiddled with the ring on her finger, standing from the chair to pace. "I've hovered, yes, maybe glided, but I've never experimented on how far my ability does or doesn't go."  
"You're gonna freak yourself out if you keep worrying about it," He called, meeting her nervous eyes. She sent him a small, awkward smile, which he reciprocated. Charlie moved to the window and watched the Hellicarier move through the air as Bruce worked on locating all of the spectrometers.  
"You wouldn't happen to have anything to calm nerves, would you?" She asked, running a shaking hand through her brown and blonde dyed hair. Bruce looked at her surprised, having figured that she had calmed down.  
"No, sorry." He shook his head, placing the portable screen before fully facing her. "Are you alright?" Her hands were trembling and her breathing was shallow, causing Bruce to walk a little bit closer to her. "Charlotte-" he began, to which her eyes shot over to his and she winced.  
"Charlie." She insisted before turning back to the window.  
"I think you should sit down, okay?" Bruce's voice sounded warped to her, and Charlie felt the overwhelming need to get out of the hovercraft and back home, where she would be safe. She began to clench her hands into fist before letting them relax, soon feeling nothing in her fingertips. "Charlie?" Bruce called, worried before he walked closer to her. He raise his fingers to her shoulder tentatively, afraid of touching her.  
"Charlie?" He called, softer, as if speaking to a child. Her head turned slightly towards him, and he could see the extreme dilation of her pupils. His grip on her arm tightened slightly as he pulled on her shoulder, urging her to sit down. She shakily complied, grabbing onto his arms with a fierce grip that startled him. She gritted her teeth and grimaced at him, her eyes filling with tears before she could stop them. Bruce grabbed her hands from his arms and placed them on his chest, right over his heart that was beating steadily.  
"Breathe, Charlie," he instructed taking a deep breath to demonstrate. "Just like me, in and out." Her hands grabbed his shirt with a death grip, her eyes locking on his as she tried to imitate his movements. "Nice and slow, in and out." Bruce rubbed her back in soothing circles, attempting to calm her down. As Charlie struggled to breathe, she felt freezing cold and pulled Bruce closer to her, relishing in his warmth. Bruce's heart rate increased because she was so close to him. No one had dared been this close to him in a long time. Closing her eyes, Charlie took a deep breath in through her nose and let it out through her mouth, her lips still trembling as she tried to calm down.  
"Thank you," she whispered with her eyes still closed. "I'm sorry, Doctor Banner."  
"Call me Bruce." He said gently, still rubbing her back soothingly.


	3. Chapter 3

Realizing that she still held his shirt in her hands, Charlie released the purple fabric, rubbing it lightly to try and get rid of the wrinkles. She coughed awkwardly as Bruce pulled his arm away from her back, standing up straight.  
"Are you alright now?" He asked softly, and Charlie looked up with flushed cheeks. She nodded her head mutely, itching the side of her face as she avoided looking at him.  
"Sorry about that," she mumbled, standing up from the chair.  
"It's not a problem." Bruce responded kindly, fixing his glasses before he turned to the screen. "Does that happen often?"  
"Uh," Charlie stammered. "N-not really. I'm normally not sober enough to get that anxious."  
"Alcohol?" He asked, surprised. He hadn't taken her as an alcoholic, which he assumed most people thought because of her Irish brogue.  
"N-no." She denied, taking a deep breath. "Marijuana." She shot him a sheepish grin that had him chuckling. "Not a good habit, I know."  
"We've all done it," Bruce chuckled, sending her a smile that made her muscles relax.  
"Great stuff," she sighed fondly. "So aside from helping me through a panic attack, what have you been working on?" She walked up next to him, reading over his shoulder to see a crazy graph.  
"I'm locating gamma levels using spectrometers." He explained, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb to soothe away the irritation. "Do you have anything to drink?" Having been so close to her had made his throat dry up, and now it was starting to irritate him.  
"Yeah," she said as she walked over to her bag, digging around for the water bottle that Coulson was thoughtful enough to pack for her. As her back was turned, Director Fury walk in with a large scepter in his hands. He placed it on the table in front of Bruce, who stared at the scepter with his confused brown eyes.  
"This is Loki's. We believe you may be able to track down the cube using this," Fury explained before marching out.  
"What a twat," Charlie mumbled with a shake of her head. Bruce chuckled and accepted the water bottle that she offered him, taking a swig of the pristine water before responding.  
"Couldn't have put it better myself." He agreed, sending Charlie a small smile, to which she grinned. As she stood next to Bruce, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck raise. She turned to look out the window of the lab and saw a man surrounded by a group of armed men. Fear swept through her entire being as she met his eyes; they were cold, calculating and made Charlie's instinct for flight grow in size. Placing a hand onto Bruce's chest, Charlie alerted him of the captive that was walking down the hallway. The man's eyes shot to Bruce, who's arm had protectively wrapped around Charlie's waist. Charlie's grip on Bruce's shirt doubled as the man shot her a terrifying grin.  
Once the man had walked out of view of the two, Charlie took a deep breath out of relief and wondered what could possibly smell so good. Realizing she was holding onto Bruce- again, Charlie turned her head and met his eyes with an apologetic expression. Their eyes met and Charlie's heart stuttered in her chest. His brown eyes were looking softly into hers, and she could feel his heart beat resonate against her palm.  
"Sorry," she breathed, blinking slowly. Bruce took a deep breath as he went to reply, but stopped when he smelled something that reminded him of freshly baked cookies. Swallowing harshly, Bruce sent Charlie a smile as she let go of him and his hand dropped from her waist. Charlie awkwardly walked to her bag and rummaged around, hoping to look nonchalant to the good doctor, who was doing random things with the scepter to look busy himself.  
"You're both needed on the bridge." Came a voice from a small intercom near the door. Charlie sent Bruce a questioning glance, and followed him out into the hallway towards the bridge.  
"Ant, boot." Charlie and Bruce heard as they entered the bridge, Charlie sitting in one of the chairs and Bruce opting to stand behind her with his hands crossed on the top of her chair. They both watched the monitor of Fury 'talking' with the creepy man they had seen in the lab.  
"It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me." Charlie looked up at Bruce, who clenched his jaw. She frowned before placing a hand on his arm gently, as if reminding him that she was there.  
"Built for something a lot stronger than you."  
"Oh, I've heard." The man looked directly into the camera before continuing. "A beast, makes play he's still a man." Charlie's grip on his arm tightened as every one in the room turned to look at him. "How desperate are you, that you call on such desperate creatures to defend you?"  
"How desperate am I?" Fury repeated in a deadpan. "You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk about peace but you kill because its fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that we did."  
Charlie squeezed Bruce's arm lightly before letting her arm drop back beside her. Bruce sent her a weak smile, which she responded to in the same manner.  
"Oh," Loki continued. "It burns you to have come so close. To have the tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share? And then to be reminded what real power is."  
"We'll let me know if real power wants a magazine or something." Fury said sassily before storming out of the room, causing the conversation to end. The screen closed, making everyone look up with a thoughtful expression.  
"He really grows on you, doesn't he."  
"Loki's gonna drag this out, so..." Steve paused. "Thor, what's his play."  
"He has an army called the chitauri. They are not of Asgard, nor of any world known. He means to lead them against your people." Thor responded. "They will win him the earth, in return, I suspect, for the tesseract."  
"An army?" Charlie asked, leaning forward.  
"From outer space." Steve tagged on, sending Agent Romanov a look.  
"So he's building another portal? That's what he needs Eric Selvig for." Bruce commented, taking his glasses of and folding them habitually.  
"Selvig?" Thor questioned.  
"He's an astrophysicist." Bruce clarified.  
"He's a friend." Thor retorted, slight worry taking over his godly features.  
"Loki has him under some sort of spell, along with one of ours." Agent Romanov explained, finishing with a slightly sour look on her face.  
"I wanna know why he let us take him. He's not leading an army from here." Steve spoke, drawing attention away from the agent.  
"You shouldn't be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him." Bruce chimed, making Charlie hide her smile behind her hand.  
"Take care how you speak," Thor chided. "Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother."  
"He killed eighty people in two days." Natasha said in a deadpan.  
"He's adopted." Thor said sheepishly, making Charlie giggle behind her hand.  
"I think it's about the element. Iridium- what do they need the iridium for?" Bruce asked aloud.  
"It's a stabilizing agent," said a man walking in. "Means, the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D. No hard feelings, point break, you gotta mean swing." He said, slapping Thor on the arm lightly. "Also it means that the portal can stay open as wide, and as long as Loki wants."  
Charlie shot Bruce a questioning glance, to which he leaned forward and whispered, "Tony Stark." Charlie nodded her head, though she had no idea who he was.  
"The rest of the raw materials Barton can get his hands leasing enough, though the main component he still needs is a power source of high energy density. Something to kick start the reactor."  
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclearastrophysics?" Agent Hill asked with her arms crossed.  
"Last night. The packet- Selvig's notes? The extraction theory papers? Am I the only one who did the reading?" Tony asked.  
"Does Loki need any particular power source?"  
"He'd have to heat the cube to a hundred million kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Bruce piped smartly.  
"Unless he figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."  
"Well, if he could do that he'd achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor in the planet."  
"Finally!" Stark exclaimed. "Someone who speaks English."  
"Is that what just happened?" Steve asked Charlie, who just shrugged her shoulders and sighed.  
"It's good to meet you, Doctor Banner. Your work in anti electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster." Stark said as he shook Bruce's hand.  
"Thanks." Bruce responded dryly.  
"Doctor Banner is only here to track the cube." Fury interrupted. "I was hoping you might join him."  
"I'd start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it sure works like a Hydra weapon." Steve put in, turning his head towards the geniuses.  
"I wouldn't say that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki turned two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."  
"Monkeys?" Thor asked, confused. "I do not understand that reference."  
"I do!" Steve exclaimed, making every one look at him with varying looks of pity. "I-I understood that reference."  
"Shall we play, doctor?" Tony asked, turning back to Bruce.  
"This way, sir." Bruce played along. On his way out of the room, he turned back, calling for Charlie. "Charlie, are you coming?"  
Charlie looked up, surprised at the invitation. She sent him a thankful grin that had his heart stuttering as she nodded and followed them down to the lab.


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry its kind of short!**

**-Kate Xx**

After listening to the two geniuses banter about science for an hour, Charlie decided it was time to get something to eat. She had offered to grab the men food, to which they thanked her. On her way down the hallway, she ran into Steve, who was also on his way to grab a bite to eat.  
"Hey, Steve." Charlie smiled, walking beside him towards the cafeteria.  
"Evening, ma'am." He responded, making Charlie cluck her tongue in disapproval.  
"My name ain't ma'am," Charlie said fiercely, making Steve smile sheepishly at her.  
"Right," he tried to pacify her. "Sorry, Charlie."  
"There we go." She smiled at him as they reached the cafeteria. "How are you?" She asked as she grabbed a tray to fill up with food.  
"I'm alright," he stated, rolling his eyes as Charlie sent him a look.  
"I thought I told you that you could be honest with me." Charlie reminded him none-to-gently of their talk on the jet.  
"I know, I know." He said with a sigh. "I'm pretty overwhelmed by all of this stuff. I mean, aliens? Really?"  
"I know how you feel." She sighed, grabbing a diet coke for Bruce, a coffee with two sugars for Tony, and a bottle of water for herself. "I didn't think about the possibility of aliens until the truth was literally smacked in my face last year."  
"I just don't know how to deal with it." He sighed as he picked his own meal out. Charlie grabbed herself some chicken noodle soup, some hummus and pita bread for Bruce, and a slice of pizza for Tony, as per their request.  
"Im gonna go deliver this to the science dweebs." Charlie sighed, grabbing utensils and napkins before sending Steve a smile. "I'll catch ya later, boss man!"  
"See you later, Charlie." Steve called before digging into his food.

"I come bearing gifts." Charlie sighed as she walked into the lab carrying the tray of food.  
"Finally!" Tony whined as he put down one of the portable screens. "I'm starved!" He grabbed the slice of pizza from the tray she carried and immediately took a bite, sending her a wink as he carried his pizza and coffee back over to his station.  
"Thanks, Charlie." Bruce smiled at her as she placed his food on the table next to him. Charlie shot him a shy smile as she walked over towards he designated chair.  
"So what's your deal?" Tony asked through a mouthful of pizza, pointing a grease covered finger at Charlie, who was sipping her soup quietly. She sent him a confused look, her eyebrow cocking at the billionaire. "Why aren't you tiptoeing around the big guy?"  
"Well," Charlie mumbled. "Who am I to judge his control?" Bruce looked up at Charlie, his eyebrows rocketing upwards. "Wouldn't he make the call if he couldn't handle it?"  
"Huh," Tony said thoughtfully, staring at Charlie for an extended period of time until she began to fidget, her eyes darting from Tony to Bruce as she pleaded for help. Bruce cleared his throat, motioning for Tony to continue his work and leave Charlie alone. "I, on the other hand, want to test his control."  
True to his word, for the next thirty minutes Tony spent his time testing both Bruce's and Charlie's patience. Charlie had tuned Tony out the best that she could, sending Bruce a smile and rolling her eyes whenever the playboy had come up with another scheme to get Bruce to lose control.  
"You should come to Stark Tower sometime," Tony proposed, walking around the lab table where Bruce was working on the scepter. "You'd love it! Top ten floors, all R&D- its candyland."  
"Thanks, but, uh," Bruce muttered. "The last time I was in New York I kind of broke Harlem."  
"Well, I can promise a stress free environment; no tension, no surprises-"  
"Ow!" Bruce complained, more out of annoyance than pain. Tony stared expectantly at the man, waiting for his inner beast to break free at the volt of electricity that shot through him. Seeing his controlled response, Tony let out an impressed sigh.  
"Hey!" Steve called from the hallway, having witnessed Tony instigating a dangerous fight. "Are you nuts?"  
"Jury's out." Tony said, shooting Steve a grin. "You've really got a lid on it, don't you. What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?" Charlie cackled at that last solution, the suggestion made only because of Tony's knowledge of Charlie's habits.  
"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked, sending Charlie a reprimanding look for encouraging the genius.  
"Funny things are," Stark said with a smirk, backing away from Bruce who was smiling to himself.  
"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny," Steve chided without thinking. "No offense, doc."  
"Yeah, it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things." Bruce said in good nature, meeting Charlie's eyes to make light of his situation.  
"You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut." Tony suggested, walking back towards his station.  
"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." Steve interjected.  
"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us in- why now? Why not before?" Tony questioned looking at Bruce to back him up. "What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."  
"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve asked.  
"He's a spy, Cap," Tony deadpanned. "He's the spy. His secrets have secrets. It's bugging them too, isn't it?" Tony suddenly called, his eyes shifting between the good doctor and Charlie, who shared a nervous look.  
"I just wanna finish my work here, and-" Bruce tried to deny before Steve cut him off.  
"Doctor?" Steve questioned in a no nonsense voice, making Bruce take off his glasses and sigh.  
"'A warm light for all mankind'," Bruce began, taking a deep breath. "Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."  
"I heard it," Steve confirmed, looking down for a millisecond.  
"Well, I think that was meant for you." Bruce finished, pointing at Tony, who had been listening intently. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was all over the news."  
"The Stark Tower?" Steve asked. "That big, ugly," Tony shot Steve a look, as if reminding him that the owner of said building was in the room. "Building in New York?"  
"Powered by an arc reactor- a self sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for, what, a year?"  
"And that's just the prototype." Tony bragged. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That's what he's getting at."  
"So, why didn't S.H.I.E.L.D. bring him in on the tesseract project? What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"  
"I should probably look into that." Tony said as he pulled out his ridiculously high tech phone. "Once my decryption program finishes hacking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secure files."  
"Im sorry, did you say-"  
"Jarvis has been running since I hit the bridge." Tony interrupted Steve, looking incredibly smug. "In a few hours, I will know every dirty secret that S.H.I.E.L.D. Hs ever tried to hide. Blueberry?" Tony asked, holding the bag out for Steve to take a few.  
"Yet, you're confused about why they didn't want you around." Steve fumed.  
"An intelligence agency that fears intelligence? Historically; not awesome."  
"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war. If we don't stay focused, he'll succeed." Steve shot Bruce a look before turning back to Tony. "We have orders; we should follow them."  
"Following's not really my style."  
"And you're all about style, aren't you." Steve asked rhetorically.  
"Of the people in this room, who is a.) wearing a spangly outfit, and b.) not a fuse?"  
"Steve," Charlie interjected softly, drawing the attention towards her for the first time since he had come into the room. "You can't tell me that none of this seems a little funky to you?"  
Steve's jaw clenched as he took in Charlie's facial expression, noticing how she really believed there was something going on. And seeing as how she was the first person to speak to him like a person and not a plastic doll. Steve acquiesced, nodding his head with his face contorted in distaste.  
"Just find the cube," he said, storming out of the lab and leaving the air crackling with negative energy.  
"That's the guy my dad wouldn't shut up about?" Tony scoffed to Charlie and Bruce. "I'm wondering why they didn't keep him on ice."  
"He's actually a pretty nice guy," Charlie tried to defend, her fingers playing with her ring absently. "Once you get past all that tough guy exterior."  
"He's annoying," Tony snorted as he ate a blueberry. Charlie just rolled her eyes and layer down, fully intending to get some sleep on this stupid aircraft.


	5. Chapter 5

**I am so ridiculously sorry for the wait you guys! As a little apology this chapter is pretty long. Let me know what you think!**

**-Kate**

* * *

Charlie groaned as she woke up, a sharp, metallic clang rousing her from her unintentionally deep slumber. Her eyes were foggy before they focused on Tony, Bruce, Fury, and Steve arguing in the center of the lab. Her ears were ringing as she sat up too quickly, her feet touching the floor as Thor and Agent Romanov walked into the room, only adding to the chaos.  
"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment?" Romanov asked the good doctor.  
"I was in Calcutta, I'm pretty well removed." He responded offhandedly.  
"Loki is manipulating you." She pressed, stepping forward.  
"And you've been doing what, exactly?" He retorted as he walked around the table between them, walking towards one of the screens.  
"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," she continued.  
"Yeah, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy." Bruce retorted, pointing at the screen that had an array of blueprints on it. "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."  
"Because of him," Fury said, blatantly pointing his finger at the god. Charlie rubbed her forehead as she stood up, the argument in the room was making her head hurt.  
"Me?" Thor questioned innocently.  
"Last year, earth had a visitor from another planet, who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously outgunned."  
"My people want nothing but peace with your planet." Thor denied, crossing his arms.  
"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury pointed out, continuing his speech and sending pointed stares across the room. "And you're not the only threat; the world is filling up with people who cannot be matched." Fury sent a look at Charlie, who was biting her lip and clenching her eyes shut. "They can't be controlled."  
"Like you controlled the cube?" Steve snorted.  
"Your work with the tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is a signal to all of the realms that earth is ready for a higher form of war." Thor explained, getting angry at the accusations being pinned on him and his people.  
"A higher form?" Steve asked incredulously.  
"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something-" Fury tried to explain.  
"A nuclear deterrent, cause that always calms everything right down." Tony said, wrapping his arm around Charlie, who had made her way over to the billionaire; out of everyone in the room, she only trusted Bruce, Tony, and Steve.  
"Remind me again how you made your fortune, stark?" Fury smirked.  
"I'm sure if he still made weapons Stark would be neck deep in-" Steve backhandedly tried to sway the conversation towards Tony.  
"Wait, hold on, how is this now about me?" Tony asked, crossing his arms defiantly as he walked closer to the Captain. Losing her sense of security, Charlie walked closer to Bruce, who had started arguing with Agent Romanov.  
"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve retorted.  
"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor insulted.  
"Excuse me, did we go to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury retorted as the room erupted into chaos. Charlie curled in on herself, her arms wrapping around her midriff as her breathing came in short huffs of air, her body crawling with unexplainable fear. Her eyes watered as everyone began to raise their voices, a small whimper escaping her lips as she watched everyone go at each other's throat.  
"We're not a team; we're a time bomb." Bruce said as there was a lull in the argument.  
"You need to step away," Fury said furiously.  
"Why shouldn't the guy let off some steam, huh?" Tony said, clapping Steve on the back.  
"You know damn well why, back off." Steve said, brushing Tony's arm off.  
"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me." Tony said bitterly, glaring at the man in front of him.  
"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor; take that off and what are you?" Steve asked, circling Tony.  
"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist?"  
"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage; the only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."  
"I think I would just cut the wire,"  
"Always a way out. Y'know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."  
"A hero, like you?" Tony got closer to Steve's face, his angry breath landing with a huff on Steve's face. "You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers, everything special about you comes out of a bottle."  
"You people are so petty." Thor chuckled, sparing a glance at Charlie, who was curling into herself to try and stop her anxiety from paralyzing her. "And tiny."  
"Agent Banner, could you please escort Doctor Banner to his-?" Fury began only to be cut off by the doctor in question.  
"Where? You rented my room!"  
"The cell was just in case-"  
"You needed to kill me, but you can't, I know; I've tried." Everyone went silent, staring at the good doctor with pity in their eyes. His eyes roamed everyone's face until they reached  
Charlie's. His gut clenched as he noticed her watery eyes staring at him with a sort of knowing look in her eyes. When he began to speak, it seemed as if he was only talking to her, which helped her calm down only a little bit since he was the only one talking. "I got low, I didn't see an end so I Put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on; I focused on helping other people, I was good until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk." Bruce was even angrier now, stalking forward like a caged tiger. "You wanna know my secret, agent Romanov, you wanna know how I stay calm?"  
Charlie placed a gentle hand on the center of his back, her fingers clutching at his shirt when she spoke; "Please, put down the scepter." With a jolt, Bruce looked to see his right hand had a tight hold on the scepter that had been sitting on the table only moments before. There was a beeping from the machine, sending Bruce off as he stalked over to the table to see what the computer had been able to come up with.  
"Oh my god," he muttered, looking up from the computer to glance at Charlie, who had followed him and was now grabbing onto the back of his shirt, out of fear more than anything else.  
A second seemed to pass in silence before there was an explosion that racked the entire hellicarrier, knocking everyone around and sending Agent Romanov, Bruce, and Charlie into the window behind them and down a shaft to an engine room below them. Charlie felt a pain in her stomach, groaning as she looked down to see Bruce laying haphazardly over her, his head resting on her shoulder and a grimace on his face.  
"We're okay," she heard Romanov say into her comm. Charlie turned her head to look at the agent, seeing her foot trapped underneath a pipe.  
"We're okay, right?" She asked, meeting Charlie's eyes as Bruce started to pant heavily and convulse on top of her.  
"Bruce," Charlie whimpered, dragging her bloodied hand off of the floor and placing it on the back of his head, trying to offer him some comfort in his time of need like he had some for her. "We're okay, Bruce, we're just fine."  
Hearing a commotion to her right, Charlie peeked over Bruce's head to see Romanov waving engineers off.  
"Please, Bruce, fight it for me, we're safe." Charlie pleaded, running her hands through his curly hair as he let out a roar agains her skin, smacking one of his fists down next to her head as his body began to transform. With a meaningful glance, Charlie flicked her fingers, sending the pipe holding the agent down flying and thereby releasing the woman.  
Bruce got up on his hands and knees, his body cracking and shifting as his forehead pressed against Charlie's shoulder. Her fingers kept running through his hair, hoping to offer him some comfort while waving the other woman away with her free hand.  
Once the agent was out of her sight, Charlie gently grabbed the Bruce by his chin, lifting his forehead from her shoulder so she could meet his eyes. The once brown orbs were flickering green as his shoulders began to snap sickeningly, the bones in his body cracking as they expanded and shifted.  
"Bruce," she whispered, her grey eyes staring into his and seeing only agony as his body began to grow larger. "I'm here for you, okay?" She pleaded, one of her hands leaving his chin to push his hair off of his forehead. His hand gripped her wrist, his hold stopping her movements as she stared helplessly into the suffering man's eyes; there was nothing she could do but hope he could overcome his inner beast.  
"C-Cha-" He groaned, biting down hard on his tongue as another shift happened in his body.  
"That's right, Bruce," Charlie gasped, letting his burning forehead rest against her own, her grey eyes staring at his clenched eyes. "I'm not gonna leave you."  
"C-Charlie," he managed to churn out, his eyes opening suddenly and meeting her gaze, his eyes turning completely brown for a moment as they stared at each other.  
"Hey," she cooed, running her hand through the hair on the back of his neck again.  
"Get away, I can't- I can't stop it." He panted, his grip on her wrist going slack for a moment.  
"I'm not going ta leave you," she promised, turning her wrist in his grip to grab onto his hand a squeeze tightly on the appendage. "I promise I will never, ever leave you."  
"PROMISE?" He screeched, green swirling into his eyes and his body curling up into itself, his back arching and bringing his head off of hers. He kneeled over her with his back arched and his mouth open in a silent scream of pain.  
Charlie didn't want to believe it, but it was too late for her to help him; he was too far gone into the transformation for her petty attempts to calm him down to actually help the doctor. Bruce scampered away from the woman, his body cracking and his clothes ripping as his skin turned green and his body grew. As the hulk stood up, he let out a deafening roar that shook Charlie to her bones. Charlie looked around and saw her chance of escape, controlling the molecules of the air and sending her body shooting down a row of machinery and hopefully to an exit.  
She didn't have to look back to confirm that the Hulk had spotted her and was now chasing her through the machinery. Cursing every single curse she knew, Charlie saw agent Romanov hiding behind a barrel and didn't stop to think about what she was doing, knowing that if she did, then they both would die.  
"Hold on tight!" Charlie instructed, grabbing the agent by the arm and roughly swinging her onto her back while in midair, faltering in her speed only slightly as she felt the agent grip onto her shoulders. Charlie sped through the air, the hulk having caught up during her attempted rescue of the agent. In a desperate attempt to keep him at bay, Charlie collapsed an overhanging stairwell onto the green beast, stalling him for only a few precious moments as she hung left and flew through a series of glass rooms, urging herself to go faster as she felt the hulk catching up to her and the agent.  
"Shit!" Charlie cursed as she flew upwards, hoping to avoid getting caught by her friend's not so friendly counterpart, when his large green fist grabbed onto the agent on her back and lobbed her at a wall. Charlie's flight was staunched when the other green fist curled around her midriff, holding her still while she tried to squirm out of his grasp.  
"Bruce, stop!" She cried when his fist began to constrict around her, forcing whatever air she had out of her body before she felt Thor pummel into her captor, the force of his attack knocking her loose form the large hands.  
Charlie rolled to a stop, gasping for air as she finally laid flat not too far from the shell shocked Agent. With one last heaving breath, Charlie's world went black.


End file.
